Cruisin

About two years ago I received an e-mail from a friend asking if we would be interested in going on a cruise with a whole bunch of our neighbors & friends?  I figured we had two whole years to plan and save, so why not?  We decided to go for it.  Seth and I had never done anything like this, and we have always wanted to- and to be able to go with so many fun people- that was just icing on the cake!  I can’t believe two years has come and gone- just like that!  The cruise was a 7 day, western caribbean with stops in Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel.  In all, there were 16 couples, mostly from our neighborhood in our group.  We left on the 6th of March and were actually gone for 9 whole days, so I have to give a HUGE thank you to all who helped with babysitting, but especially to Jeremy & Chris who did the lions share.  We couldn’t have done it without you!

We played, partied, relaxed, acted like children, acted like teenagers, and acted like complete fools! It was the greatest time ever!  Below are some of the many highlights. (Warning- it is a bit of a photo overload, but I just couldn’t help myself!!!)  

Oh, one more thing.  I have to give a shout out to my mom’s blue dress.  I wanted to wear it so bad.  It is really hard to find something that is modest & elegant to wear on a cruise.  Everything I looked at was either too slutty or too casual or just too boring.  Her dress was gorgeous.  The only problem: My mom is a stunning size 4 (at age 61- yes, you can HATE HER).  Me?  Not so much.  Never fear!  I went on an insanely strict, 2-week crash diet (not recommended except in cases of EXTREME emergency, as this clearly was).  I dropped 8 lbs, and my mom was kind enough to alter the dress just slightly to cover the rest.  So voila!  I was quite proud of myself. I stuffed every ounce of my booty in there & lets just say thank goodness formal night was on day 2 of the cruise & not day 7!  Ha!

1st stop- Labadee, Haiti. We spent the day on the beach. Several of us got a good game of beach volleyball going, there were also a brave few who played beach soccer.  Nate took me for a ride on the Dragon Coaster (thanks Nate!).  It was actually really fun!  And of course, my favorite part, just lying around on the beach with a good book, ordering a delicious virgin pina colada from the nice fella walking around takin’ orders!

Next stop: Falmouth, Jamaica.  We braved a harrowing bus ride to go on two really fun adventures: first, tubing down this beautiful river with the whole group.  That was a blast.  We took a time out for some cliff jumping & stopped at a  tourist trap in the middle of NOWHERE.  Next we were on to Dunn’s River Falls which is a GIANT tourist trap, but still really fun & really cool.

Next stop: Grand Cayman.  My favorite one.  The water was so, so beautiful!  We took a catamaran out to a sandbar in the middle of the ocean where we went snorkeling and then over to the stingray cove. That was so, so cool!

Last stop: Cozumel, Mexico.  When we got to Cozumel, we boarded a ferry that took us over to the mainland & docked in Playa Del Carmen.  From there we took a bus up to Tulum, where we were greeted by Helamen, our LDS tour guide.  That was such a great experience.  Seth and I didn’t want to go at first because it was going to be so expensive, but I’m so glad we did.  We learned a ton and it was really neat to see how the archeology and history of the place related to the B.O.M. and its people.

 

 

 

 

And of course there was all the awesome stuff to do on the boat….

Eat.  Need I say more????? Ok, eat and eat and eat and eat…………

Side note: Happy Birthday Tricia!!!!  Trish celebrated her 29th birthday (again) on the first day of our trip. So fun!  I brought her a “birthday queen” hat to wear at dinner.

Play.  (You’re looking at the Royal Caribbean Dodgeball Champions! Wa-hoo!)

Partay all night long.  (BTW- this particular move is dedicated to my sweetie.  We nicknamed it the Seth Wallace fist pump. Yeah Baby!)

More dancin.  Trish led us in some zumba dances.  SO MUCH FUN!

And lets not forget Karaokee. Justin was our rockstar! (And give props  to backup dancer Cade…….)

Shows.  We went to lots and lots of great shows!

Climb the rock wall!!!!

And of course the flow-rider.  Seth was awesome at this.  I was terrible.  I think its safe to say that a few members of our group became insanely obsessed with this sport (Seth included).  They spent all of their spare time practicing & trying to get better at it.

In fact, below is a picture of us all cheering the boys on at the flowrider championships on the last day.  Nate was the only one who made it to the finals.  He did awesome!

I am so sorry.  I know I have issues.  But there are just a few more photos that I had to include.

Again, I am so sorry for the picture overload, but this trip was definitely one of the most fun things I have done in my adult life!  We enjoyed every single minute of it! Hopefully in another 10 years or so we can do it again! (sigh……….)

Grandpa’s Race

I posted awhile back about Seth’s Grandpa Wallace who passed away in October.  He was a huge supporter of the Ogden Trails Network, donating massive amounts of time to building, engineering, and repairing trails.  If you have ever spent any time on the trails in O-town, you know they are some of the best in the world for their beauty, quality, and just overall awesomeness!  Anyway- the Ogden Trails Network, along with the Northern Utah Trail Series wanted to start an annual run in his honor, with the proceeds going towards beautification of the many, many trails that Grandpa helped implement over the years.  When we heard about the race, we knew we had to run it!  Then we heard that it was a 10k trail run on a fairly difficult (mostly UPHILL) course in early April in Utah.  (translation- the weather is most likely NOT going to cooperate!)   Still, we knew we had to represent! So, Seth & I made an effort to get in some kind of decent running shape, we marked our calendars, and we did our best to rally the fam & a few brave friends to come & run with us.

The morning of the race we woke up to about 5 inches of fresh Utah powder.  Yes, this is on April 9th- not the strangest thing, but certainly not the spring April morning we were hoping for! Oooh- I was so tempted to stay in my bed, but after dressing in about 5 too many layers, we headed down to the race.

This is my friend Brooke and I walking from the car to the race start. Yes, as you can see, i was wearing my ski goggles, and my big wooly ski socks because I was so afraid of the cold (and the wet).

However, a miraculous thing happened.  The minute we started running, the snow stopped. And I even want to say the sun nearly peaked through, but that may have been my hallucinations from running straight up Taylor’s canyon. Anyway- it turned out to be a delightful run.  Just delightful! I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Lots of brave Wallace’s showed up and we had such a good time. If you have never participated in a N.U.T.S. run, you have got to put it on your list of things to do.  They do a great job organizing, the shirts are much better than average, and the trails are so much fun! You can see their schedule at www.northernutahtrailseries.com 

(I bet they think I’m so nice for that little plug :)

My brother Marty finishing.  He finished first out of all the people I knew that were there.  (That’s all that counts :)

Seth came in just a few minutes after him, that sucker.  He never even trains!  He’s just good at stuff.  It really makes the rest of us angry.

And there’s me.  I’m going to say not too shabby.  I finished much faster than I thought I would.  It only took me 1 hr. 17 minutes to complete 6 1/2 miles going straight UPHILL in the SNOW!  I think that’s pretty darn good.

Anyway- a great time was had by all.  I’m so glad I participated & so thankful to all the Wallace’s young and old who made it out.  We had a common goal and that was to in some way thank Grandpa for all the work he did on those trails.  We love you Grandpa!  Thank you for making the snow stop, even if it was just for one hour!

WALLACES!  Kim, Brian, Wendy, Wendy’s mom?, Amber, Travis, Jim, Dianna, Travis & Dianna’s girls, Me, Seth and Bob. Oh, and don’t forget my brother Marty.  Not technically a Wallace, but everyone wanted him to be in the photo anyway, since he supported us! (and he’s almost related!)

P.S.- These photos were all stolen from the N.U.T.S. website.  Yet another reason you should run one of their races.  They take your picture, and they don’t make you pay $40.00 for a copy!

P.S.S.- In case you were curious, I didn’t end up needing my goggles.  (And Seth thought I was the biggest nerd ever.)  But I’d rather be safe than sorry!

Ladies Ski Day

We did it! Finally, after years of begging, I convinced some of my non-actively skiing friends to get back on the horse! (Ok, to give credit to Amberlee- SOME of you ski regularly, but most haven't been since FOREVER!) It took a lot of convincing, but was SO worth it in the end. We had a perfect day! Just a bunch of old hens, clucking away. BEAUTIFUL weather, awesome food at the lodge, and of course, a few great photos. Thanks ladies. It was so much fun. We need to do it more often.





P.S.- Oh, and of course it wouldn't be the full Snowbasin experience unless they got to try out ALL the lifts, even the tram. Oh, you should have seen their faces when they got off at the top. I thought someone might throw me over the edge they were so terrified (and mad)! But we all made it down, quite gracefully I might add. CUDOS to such brave, amazing, terrific friends!

BTW- I swear we got a picture at the top of Strawberry, too. Who took that one? Can someone send it to me, please?!?

BTW(again)- missed you Chow :(

You know you're a 5th child if.......

Your mom hands you an entire slice of cheese pizza at dinner so she can have 5 minutes of peace! (Yes, she is only 8 months old- and she did just fine!) She gummed that pizza until there wasn't anything left but the sauce all over her face. And in fact, that bought me ONE HOUR of peace!
Still, I have to chuckle at the fact that I would have NEVER in a million years threw a slice of pizza to my 1st child (or even my second) at that age.
Hey, I'm a fifth child, and I turned out all right, right?????

The Happiest Place on Earth!

We finally did it!  We caved & took our kids to Disneyland.  They have begged & pleaded, and we have put it off, thinking they were too young.  Then last month, an unexpected opportunity arose.  My sister Janna was going, and was desperately searching for someone to come with them. She kept asking and asking, and I kept telling her the time wasn’t right yet, and finally she said they would give us all their extra hotel points so our hotel would be free.  Well, that was enough twisting my arm!   Since it was a last minute decision, we decided to keep it a secret from our kids.   Seth and I told them we were taking them out of school for a day to drive down to Price & look for houses.  After we’d been in the car for over 4 hours & St. George was on the horizon, Kenni finally noticed that wherever we were didn’t look much like Price.  Seth told all of the kids he must have taken a wrong turn and that we were lost.  They were panicking and getting ready to cry, so we quickly said “Surprise!  We tricked you!  We’re actually on our way to Disneyland!!!!”

Um…….. Lets just say we didn’t get quite the response we were hoping for.  Noodle immediately started sobbing.  He said he didn’t want to go to Disneyland! (I think he was really tired) Smurfy was already asleep.  Sparky was very concerned about school and told me his teacher was going to get mad at him for not coming back the next day. (I assured him she wouldn’t)  He asked me how he would possibly ever get all his make-up work done?? Only Kenni really understood and was jumping for joy.

I have to admit, I was really hoping for the commercial.  You know the one- that amazing Disneyland commercial where the kids get surprised by their parents and they can’t stop screaming?  It makes it all seem so magical.  (sigh…….)

Only now can I look back & realize how funny our kids response was.  And it was so typically “them”.

Anyway- after another hour or two of driving, they began to get really excited, and about another hour later the “are we there yets”  started to set in.  The rest of the drive was even less magical.  But, we made it in record time, and the kids devoured every MINUTE of the trip from that moment on.

We really, truly had such a great time.  I think the kids were just the perfect ages.  And my dear friend Michelle volunteered to keep baby J at home which made all the difference in the world.  At nearly 4, Smurfy was tall enough to go on all the rides he wanted to except one.  It wasn’t too crowded and we had PERFECT weather.  High 70’s and sunny the entire trip.  It was amazing!

Seth whined for ages about being “forced” to go to Disneyland, but he’ll be the first to admit now, he had a great time.

We can’t wait to go back again soon!!!!

I made these sweatshirts for the kids & gave them to them on the way there.  There were some cute t-shirts like them on Disney.com but they were $20 each.  I got these white sweatshirts at Wal-Mart on clearance for $1 and used my cricut to cut the fabric & ironed it on.  Much more economical, if not a little magoo.  But, the kids loved them & showed them off to people everywhere we went.

The “World of Color” light/water show at California Adventure.

The last time Seth went to Disneyland he was three years old, and apparently the only ride he wasn’t terrified of was Dumbo.  So we made sure to take lots of pictures of it so we could show his mom that its still his favorite ride :)

The kids all wore these lanyard with all their collectible pins on them the whole time they were there.  My sister told me that “pin trading” is one of her kids favorite things to do while in Disneyland. Let me just say the the pin trading was a hit- and that next time we’ll leave them home!  They cared more about finding cool pins than they did about enjoying Disneyland.  It drove me nuts!

Goodbye Disneyland!  We will miss you!